Get up
Sleeping In
Sheltering in place to combat COVID-19 meant spending days without leaving the house. Some of the first mornings, afternoons and evenings, I never changed out of my pajamas. I was awake, logged on, even cooking and cleaning but I just forgot to change.
I wasn't leaving the house and any reflex to "get ready" was dulled until encountering Christine Sine on a webinar. She mentioned the need to segment the day with rituals like changing clothes. I listened and saw the beginning of a writing project unfold. Getting up became easier when, the night before, I had selected the clothes I was going to wear.
Getting up was tied to exercise, diet and reading patterns the day before. Self discovery returned me to Leading On Empty by Wayne Cordeiro:
Sheltering in place to combat COVID-19 meant spending days without leaving the house. Some of the first mornings, afternoons and evenings, I never changed out of my pajamas. I was awake, logged on, even cooking and cleaning but I just forgot to change.
I wasn't leaving the house and any reflex to "get ready" was dulled until encountering Christine Sine on a webinar. She mentioned the need to segment the day with rituals like changing clothes. I listened and saw the beginning of a writing project unfold. Getting up became easier when, the night before, I had selected the clothes I was going to wear.
Getting up was tied to exercise, diet and reading patterns the day before. Self discovery returned me to Leading On Empty by Wayne Cordeiro:
"In Genesis, when God created the days, we find these words: "So the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:5 NKJV). This pattern is repeated as God continues to create on each successive day. In other words, God started each day in the evening, not the morning. Your day does not begin when you get up. It starts when you go to sleep. Rest begins your new day, not coffee. For years I had it wrong. I thought my day began with the morning's activity, but instead, it actually began with the evening's rest. I had to reprogram my mind to that biblical reality...If you ever need to sleep in, learn to sleep in on the front side of the clock, not the back side. Simply said, your deepest sleep is when your REM cycles happen, and that typically takes place between 11 pm and 3 am. That is when you will get your deepest sleep. If you miss getting to bed before 1 am, you will have missed half your change at receiving your deepest rest. You may think you can sleep in until 9 am to get your eight hours of sleep. But you are mistaken! You will have had the sleep time, but not the rest. Your sleep will be shallow compared to what it could have been, and when you awaken just before noon, you'll still feel sluggish and lethargic. So what I say is this: "You can sleep in on the back side dumb, or sleep in on the front side smart." Go to bed at 8 pm and get up at 5 am...I am much healthier when I cooperate with God's design for my body. Learn to sleep in on the front side of the clock. Sleep right and double your rest. " (Cordeiro, 129-130)Sleeping in on the front side of the clock and changing my clothes upon awakening birthed efficiencies in the balance of the days.
Remembering Our Dreams
I've kept a journal since 1995 and many of the entries are dreams. I've learned to keep pen and pad near the bed to capture details of dreams. Most writings seem nonsensical but scripture gives confidence to write what I see.
Dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Daniel are recorded in the Old Testament. The lives of Paul, Peter and Mary's husband Joseph pivoted on New Testament dreams. Like each of us, their dreams often weren't fully understood until much later. We know about their dreams because they were written down.
Some mornings there are no dreams from the night before but getting out of bed. Some dreams come to us during the day; visions for a better life come from songs, books, recipes and conversations. I've learned to write those down too. Night and day, the Lord provides instruction, warning and inspiration. I use journaling to remember mysteries that are often later revealed.
Getting out of bed is easier with curiosity about which mystery will be revealed today. It's easy to get out of bed when we remember our dreams.
Dreams of Jacob, Joseph and Daniel are recorded in the Old Testament. The lives of Paul, Peter and Mary's husband Joseph pivoted on New Testament dreams. Like each of us, their dreams often weren't fully understood until much later. We know about their dreams because they were written down.
Some mornings there are no dreams from the night before but getting out of bed. Some dreams come to us during the day; visions for a better life come from songs, books, recipes and conversations. I've learned to write those down too. Night and day, the Lord provides instruction, warning and inspiration. I use journaling to remember mysteries that are often later revealed.
Getting out of bed is easier with curiosity about which mystery will be revealed today. It's easy to get out of bed when we remember our dreams.
Golden Hour
When I was in the eighth grade, I was in a play. The King and I had a final scene with a dying king. While I was grateful to play the role that reduced an audience to sobbing wretches, the most memorable part of the script was the playwright's mention of Small House of Uncle Thomas.
Harriet Beecher-Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, had a brother, Henry, who served as a Congregational pastor. Henry Ward Beecher called the first hour of the day, the "Rudder of the Day: The Golden Hour". As a ship guides a day, so the first hour of our days lay the foundation for the rest of the day. The first hour of my day is spent in silence, prayer and Bible study.
Silence is a difficult undertaking. I'll clear my own throat in involuntary violation of silence. Once achieved, I've found great benefit in hearing what has always been.
My morning prayer is, "You are Who You say You." If anything is being said, it's being said by the Lord. He's running the show. Then I pray it again, opening my heart to consider what God says about Self. Rehearsing scripture stirs images and the names of the Lord. On a good morning, the first thing I speak is one of the names of the Lord.
Once I start talking, prayer inevitably dissolves into a list of demands . To delay my agenda, "I am who You say I am," is prayed. For a bit, the hope (sometimes unsuccessful) is to think about what God thinks about me. My job, in silent prayer, is to find out what God says about me and to be about those things. The only place I know to find out what God says about Self and me is the Bible.
I read a chapter of Proverbs (Old Testament) corresponding to the date: on the twenty-second day of the month, I read chapter 22. Proverbs readings are like multivitamins: they strengthen but do not count as a balanced diet. Deeper Bible study is begun, but rarely ended, within the Golden Hour. On the days a Proverb is all I can manage, I read authors who help me set the Rudder of the Day.
Dan Miller, in 48 Days to the Work You Love writes:
When I was in the eighth grade, I was in a play. The King and I had a final scene with a dying king. While I was grateful to play the role that reduced an audience to sobbing wretches, the most memorable part of the script was the playwright's mention of Small House of Uncle Thomas.
Harriet Beecher-Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, had a brother, Henry, who served as a Congregational pastor. Henry Ward Beecher called the first hour of the day, the "Rudder of the Day: The Golden Hour". As a ship guides a day, so the first hour of our days lay the foundation for the rest of the day. The first hour of my day is spent in silence, prayer and Bible study.
Silence is a difficult undertaking. I'll clear my own throat in involuntary violation of silence. Once achieved, I've found great benefit in hearing what has always been.
My morning prayer is, "You are Who You say You." If anything is being said, it's being said by the Lord. He's running the show. Then I pray it again, opening my heart to consider what God says about Self. Rehearsing scripture stirs images and the names of the Lord. On a good morning, the first thing I speak is one of the names of the Lord.
Once I start talking, prayer inevitably dissolves into a list of demands . To delay my agenda, "I am who You say I am," is prayed. For a bit, the hope (sometimes unsuccessful) is to think about what God thinks about me. My job, in silent prayer, is to find out what God says about me and to be about those things. The only place I know to find out what God says about Self and me is the Bible.
I read a chapter of Proverbs (Old Testament) corresponding to the date: on the twenty-second day of the month, I read chapter 22. Proverbs readings are like multivitamins: they strengthen but do not count as a balanced diet. Deeper Bible study is begun, but rarely ended, within the Golden Hour. On the days a Proverb is all I can manage, I read authors who help me set the Rudder of the Day.
Dan Miller, in 48 Days to the Work You Love writes:
I discovered the power of the first hour of the day, what Henry Ward Beecher called "the rudder of the day- the golden hour." Be very careful how you start your morning. You are planting the seeds for what the day will hold. If you get up late, grab a cup of coffee and a cigarette, fume at the idiots in traffic in your rush to work, and drop down exhausted at your desk at 8:10, you have set the tone for your day. Everything will feel like pressure and your best efforts will be greatly diluted. However, if you get up leisurely after a completely restful night's sleep, you can choose a different beginning. I have not used an alarm clock for the last 25 years because I go to bed at a reasonable time and have clearly in my mind when I want to start the next day. I get up, spend 30 minutes in meditative and devotional reading and then go to my workout area. While working out physically, I take advantage of my extensive tape library, so that I fill that 45 minutes with physical exertion combined with mental input and expansion. (Miller, 66-67)Getting up is the beginning of the day but after we get up, we have to clean up.
It's only because of COVID why I have not used an alarm clock for the past 6 wks except for this morning. But hearing that Dan Miller hasn't used an alarm clock in 25 yrs was quite insping and a great reminder for the importance of a bed time.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading...this was a longer post.
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